Anheuser-Busch InBev is having a tough time getting millennials to crack open a can of Budweiser. The world’s biggest brewer said Thursday that falling unemployment and “premium” brands are boosting overall beer sales in the US, its biggest market. But the company is struggling to market Bud — the 139-year-old American brand with blue-collar roots — to younger drinkers, who prefer craft brews and bourbon.

Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity. But as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts, the first lady also warned that the progress that’s been made is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example. “Even today, some folks...

This week's thread is about Cooking With Kids. When I was in elementary school in the early 1960s, every year the school would hold a book fair; students could look at new books and pick some out to buy. One year I bought 'Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls', originally published in the late 1950s. I loved looking at this book, and learned a lot using the recipes. For a children's book, it's a surprisingly comprehensive guide to basic cooking, with a lot of interesting presentation ideas, and even some decorative crafts. AND it includes campfire cooking! I wanted...

When the nation's top nutrition panel released its latest dietary recommendations on Thursday, the group did something it had never done before: weigh in on whether people should be drinking coffee. What it had to say is pretty surprising.Not only can people stop worrying about whether drinking coffee is bad for them, according to the panel, they might even want to consider drinking a bit more.The panel cited minimal health risks associated with drinking between three and five cups per day. It also said that consuming as many as five cups of coffee each day (400 mg) is tied to...

Would you like some Campylobacter or E. Coli today? Raw milk in 26 U.S. states is now the best place to get it, since most readers of Science 2.0 are not going to have the opportunity to buy chicken from a street vendor in China. That raw milk is risky and has no benefit is not news. In 2012 the CDC showed it again but clamoring for raw milk got even louder. It is in the news again, as part of the naturalistic fallacy that infects mostly the anti-science hippie left and a minority of people on the libertarian 'government...

This week, it's Soup and "Bread" (It's freezing here; and Soup's my favorite thing to cook anyway!) When I first developed a serious interest in cooking, my favorite cookbooks were the original 'Laurel's Kitchen' and a Shaker cookbook whose name I've forgotten and can't seem to find cited anywhere. One soup recipe that has stuck with me and remained a favorite is the "Favorite Green Soup" from 'Laurel's Kitchen.' Here is an adaptation of it, a really great soup, very nutritious, with plenty of room for variations. (In our house, it has the undignified name of 'Green Slime Soup' because...

Hoping to shed its reputation for offering little more than dead-end jobs, Wal-Mart, the nation’s biggest private employer, is giving raises to nearly a half-million workers and offering what it says are more opportunities for advancement. Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that as part of $1 billion its spending to change the way it trains and pays workers, the company will give raises to nearly 40 percent of its 1.3 million U.S. employees in the next six months. In addition to raises, Wal-Mart said it plans to make changes to how workers are scheduled and add training programs for sales...

I live out in the sticks and can't find the major ingredient of hummus (i.e. tahini). Found several recipes for hummus using natural peanut butter. Made some and it is wonderful.Here's a link to the source for the recipe I used...recipe for peanut butter hummus.Ate it for dinner tonight with raw broccoli.Wow!

Mouthwatering photos of school lunches served around the world reveal even children in Ukraine, Estonia and Greece are treated to delectable meals each day. School children in America, meanwhile, aren't nearly so lucky. Whereas a kid in France might be treated to a juicy steak and a hunk of brie, the richest country in the world's youths are more likely to receive unidentified meat served alongside little more than a starch like white pasta, fries or a roll. The contrasts between America's school meals and those in far less fortunate economies are stark and suggest Michelle Obama's push for more...

Three restaurant guests sit around the table eating, when one of them flips over the tray and tosses it away. Waiter runs toward them right away, apparently eager to find out why he did not enjoy his meal, so he could try to rectify it. As the guest continued acting like a prick, another member of the restaurant teams came over to enquire how he could be of assistance. The guest quickly turned to a bully and threw plates and utensils in his face. Then out of nowhere, a young ninja girl showed up and utilizing a high kick, removed...

Following the footsteps of a public elementary school in Flushing, Queens, another public school in New York City has decided to go vegetarian. The Peck Slip School in lower Manhattan announced Monday that it will only be serving students plant-based meals due to its benefits not only for the kids but the planet as well, becoming the second non-charter public school in the U.S. to do so. […] The implementation of the vegetarian menu was done with the help of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, a non profit dedicated to getting whole foods into schools across the New York...

A can of Coke could soon look like a pack of Marlboros, if one Bronx lawmaker has his way. Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz has introduced the “Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act” — which would require tobacco-style health- warning labels on all sugary drinks, such a cola, iced tea and energy drinks. The labels would read: “SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.”

Not even two years after being rolled out by the New York baker Dominique Ansel, the cronut -- that’s a doughnut made with croissant dough, for those who might have been living under a rock -- has gone mainstream. Dunkin’ Donuts, the Canton-based breakfast food franchise, said Wednesday that it would make the “croissant donut” a permanent addition to its menu. (“Cronut” is a trademarked term.) Since introducing the item in November, Dunkin’ said it has sold 8.5 million of them, with about 3.9 million sold since mid-December, according to past news releases.

Check out the size of this goliath grouper gathering of the coast of Florida. That is a lot of really big fish. It’s definitely not news that the goliath grouper population in Florida has been steadily on the rise over the past decade. The multitude of groupers is the cause of great concern within the angling community, as there are no natural enemies of the patriarch of the grouper family.

New Orleans police need help identifying a man seen in surveillance photos stealing several boxes of filet mignon steaks from The Roosevelt Hotel. Police said the man pried open a locked gate and walked away with the boxes in an unknown direction. The theft occurred after 10 a.m. Feb. 9 at 130 Roosevelt Way. The steaks are valued at more than $1,500, police said...

(A little early this week, because I have a couple of busy days coming up.) Chicken Cacciatore In the memoir that Julia Child wrote in collaboration with her husband's great-nephew, the story of the revelatory meal in Rouen that started Julia on her life's work is recounted ('My Life in France', Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme, 2006). I believe that anyone who has become seriously interested in food and the art of cooking has had a moment like that: the one meal that made you realize that there was a LOT more to eating and cooking than you had previously...

It seems there’s a new headline every week touting a reason why drinking alcohol (in moderation) is good for health. (At this point, one would think that red wine was the cure for all disease.) But according to researchers from University College London, the benefits of alcohol consumption may be severely overstated. For the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers analyzed data on the drinking habits of 52,891 adults who were interviewed about their average weekly alcohol consumption, as well as how much they drank in one day. Researchers found “little to no” health benefits of drinking alcohol,...

Inspectors from the LA County Health Department visited the Metro Supermarket in Temple City on Tuesday, after being informed that the market was selling raccoons as food. Employees at the market declined to appear on camera, but did show entire raccoons, frozen, bagged, and selling for $9.99 per pound. The employees say raccoon is considered a delicacy in China. Customer Christina Dow was at the market, and upon seeing the frozen raccoons, filmed the scene on her cell phone. She shared the video on social media. “The way it’s packaged in the store, it’s so real, and it’s so fresh,...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin grocery shoppers may soon be able to sample mini-shots of hard liquor in an aisle near them. The Assembly’s government operations committee unanimously approved a bipartisan bill Tuesday that would allow retailers with liquor licenses to provide small shots of booze to their customers. The measure would allow shoppers to sample one half-ounce of hard alcohol, the equivalent of one-third a shot. Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, says he sponsored the bill to level the playing field for distilleries and other liquor producers as they compete with breweries and wineries, which can offer samples.

She’s back! Danielle Lei, the entrepreneurial San Francisco Girl Scout who made international headlines in 2014 with her sales table’s location — in front of a medical marijuana dispensary — is back for another year and is already cleaning house. ~snip~ Lei reports selling a total of 208 boxes in about two hours Sunday — nearly doubling her four-day sales campaign total to 560. “That’s pretty cool,” Lei wrote The Green Cross. “ I would not have sold that many in four days if I did not sell in front of your store.”

Let's pretend it is 56 B.C. and you have been fortunate enough to be invited to a party at the home of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a great social coup. Piso, after all, was Julius Caesar's father-in-law and a consul of Rome. What's for dinner? You need to prepare for pig. Archaeologists studying the eating habits of ancient Etruscans and Romans have found that pork was the staple of Italian cuisine before and during the Roman Empire. Both the poor and the rich ate pig as the meat of choice, although the rich, like Piso, got better cuts, ate meat...

Pope Francis emphasized the right to food as fundamental in a video address Saturday to 500 experts starting work on a wide-ranging document aimed at raising awareness and proposing solutions to issues including hunger, obesity and food waste. Francis said the paradox of abundance described by Pope John Paul II—whereby there is food for everyone yet not everyone can eat—continues to be an issue “despite the multiplication of organizations and responses by the international community on nutrition.” […] He also urged them (the experts) to show courage in protecting the planet “the mother of everything that asks respect and not...

Let's pretend it is 56 B.C. and you have been fortunate enough to be invited to a party at the home of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a great social coup. Piso, after all, was Julius Caesar's father-in-law and a consul of Rome... You need to prepare for pig. Archaeologists studying the eating habits of ancient Etruscans and Romans have found that pork was the staple of Italian cuisine before and during the Roman Empire. Both the poor and the rich ate pig as the meat of choice, although the rich, like Piso, got better cuts, ate meat more often and...

SAN DIEGO — Mike Hardin -- beloved burger master, philanthropist and owner of Hodad's, an Ocean Beach institution -- has died, leaving the community in mourning. As news spread of his death, mourners gathered and left remembrances in front of the Ocean Beach restaurant on Newport Avenue, creating a makeshift memorial.

I thought it appropriate to start with Appetizers :-) Meals made up of a lot of small, different things are my favorites; I'm very happy at potlucks, or restaurants with wide and diverse appetizer menus. Appetizers are among my favorite things to cook. I found this recipe over 30 years ago - I think it was in a Junior League cookbook. At the time it was very new to me but I learned later that ladies had been making these for decades, for cocktail or bridge parties. There are lots of variations. Some people just don't like olives; but usually,...

McDonald’s fans who’ve been clamoring to know what’s in Big Mac sauce for years may have been disappointed to find out that it's basically a souped-up Russian Dressing. Yet, Australians are willing to big bucks for it. The fast food chain is auctioning off 200 bottles of “Limited Edition Big Mac Special Sauce” on eBay—starting at Aus$23,100—or about $18,000. […] The proceeds from the auction will benefit Ronald McDonald charities run by the chain that help sick children and their families. So far, over 130 bids have been placed. …

The latest on the wedding cake beat: The state of Oregon has formally ruled that a bakery in Gresham discriminated against a gay couple who wanted to purchase a wedding cake. The state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries could fine the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed its doors and become a home bakery in response to the controversy, up to $150,000.

Last year it was all about the ramen burger. But one month into 2015 and New York already has a new It sandwich. M. Wells Dinette, the French-Canadian restaurant at MoMA's PS1 outpost in Long Island City, has been selling up to 100 of its $13 spaghetti sandwiches per day since it was listed on the menu a week ago. The dish sees spaghetti in a tomato-garlic sauce take the place of a patty. The noodles are mixed with pecorino cheese then coated in egg and baked in a blini pan to hold them together.

President Barack Obama wants to create a new government agency dedicated to keeping the nation’s food safe. The proposal in the president’s budget released Monday comes after outbreaks of illnesses linked to chicken, eggs, peanuts and cantaloupe in recent years. More than a dozen federal agencies oversee food safety, and consumer advocates have long called for bringing all those functions together in a single home. […] The budget proposes consolidating the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and all of FDA’s food safety oversight into one new agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The new agency...

Well, I have accepted the challenge, and this is a preview of the New Cooking (and things related) Thread. I'll post a tried-and-true recipe each week, on Friday evening; and I hope we generate lots of Good Cookin'! I'd like it to also include recommendations of kitchen-ways - equipment that people find useful, techniques from Old Folks and Old Days, and new-fangled stuff, as well. (As an example: The Husband Unit and I have a bet on the Super Bowl, and if my team wins I get to buy one of those little counter-top ovens that are run on tea-light...

I'm posting this vanity for two reasons: I'm trying to create a new cooking thread; some of us miss the old one, which has apparently gone dormant. I've had an interesting experience of late: The Washington Post published a recipe for Peanut Soup a couple of weeks ago, and I tried it out. (Peanut soup was apparently very popular in Colonial times, and it seems to be a staple in some Williamsburg restaurants today.) I was kind of amazed at this recipe: There's not much in it but a couple of vegetables, broth, and peanuts - but it comes out...

Dan Thompson is on his way out the door as CEO of fast food giant McDonald’s. This is not terribly surprising, since the Golden Arches have turned in some poor numbers compared to their competitors for a while now. There are a few reasons for this, some of which came as a surprise to me, as outlined by my friend Stephen Green (a.k.a. Vodkapundit). One big factor which doesn’t seem to make a lot of news is that the primary component of burgers is beef, and the cost has been on the rise.

Federal health regulators have approved an attention deficit disorder drug for a new use: A first-of-its kind treatment for binge-eating disorder. […] The Food and Drug Administration originally approved Vyvanse in 2007 as a once-a-day pill for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. On Friday, the agency cleared the drug for adults who compulsively overeat. Vyvanse, known chemically as lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, is part of a family of drugs that stimulate the central nervous system. The drug’s prescribing label warns that Vyvanse has a “high potential for abuse and dependence,” and doctors should monitor patients for signs of dependence. …

While there are eighty people who hold half the world's wealth, ten 'people' who run the world, and ten corporations that control nearly everything you buy... these four companies control what is - to some - the most precious commodity in the world... world whiskey production.

A-Treat Beverages has shut down operations after nearly a century of business in the Lehigh Valley. The company, headquartered at 2001 Union Boulevard in Allentown, notified its customers Friday afternoon that it had ceased operations, according to Eric White, a spokesman for Redner’s Warehouse Markets. A-Treat, a Lehigh Valley staple, had notified Redner’s chief operating officer, and White said he learned of the closing about 3:30 p.m. The A-Treat products currently on store shelves will be the only ones available to retailers, White said. A-Treat self-distributes, meaning each Redner’s branch was on its own delivery schedule, so White couldn’t say...

KFC has done it again, snatching headlines around the world for its latest extreme sandwich a hot dog wrapped snugly in a deep-fried chicken patty. They’re calling it the KFC Double Down Dog, a riff off their Double Down, which replaced bread buns with deep-fried chicken fillets. Only instead of sandwiching bacon and cheese, the Double Down Dog consists of a chicken patty, cradling a chicken-based hot dog that’s topped with cheese and honey mustard relish dressing. The latest monster creation was released in the Philippines over the last two days, in limited quantities – just 50 hot dogs a...

France must repay the EU €1.07 billion ($1.2 billion) in agricultural aid paid to farmers due to fraud and mistakes over a four-year period, the European Commission said on Tuesday. The money, about 2 percent of the €40 billion that France has received from Brussels between 2008 and 2012 under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, must be repaid in three installments up to 2017, a European source said. France was penalized for failing to check farmers’ claims for subsidies, especially on environmental issues and calculating the area of arable land. …

A French judge spared a baby girl from being named Nutella – changing her name to Ella instead to save her from a lifetime of teasing. “The name ‘Nutella’ given to the child is the trade name of a spread,” the court ruled, according to a La Voix Du Nord. “And it is contrary to the child’s interest to have a name that can only lead to teasing or disparaging thoughts.” The parents wanted to name the girl after the popular chocolate spread, but the judge said that the name was not in the interest of the baby girl, who...

FULL TITLE: Princesses and superheroes bring children joy at Snowtown USA Character Breakfast in Watertown WATERTOWN — What better way is there to spend a cold Sunday morning than having breakfast with Elsa, Cinderella, Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. The children’s eyes lit up as their favorite Disney princesses and superheroes made their way around, greeting tables of families at the Snowtown USA Character Breakfast. .......... Planned Parenthood of the North Country New York was one of the main sponsors for the event. The Planned Parenthood staff was serving and assisting with the breakfast, Mrs. Gardner said. The Watertown Wolves...

UC Irvine and Australian chemists have figured out how to unboil egg whites – an innovation that could dramatically reduce costs for cancer treatments, food production and other segments of the $160 billion global biotechnology industry, according to findings published today in the journal ChemBioChem. "Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg," said Gregory Weiss, UCI professor of chemistry and molecular biology & biochemistry. "In our paper, we describe a device for pulling apart tangled proteins and allowing them to refold. We start with egg whites boiled for 20 minutes at 90 degrees Celsius and return...

Post Holdings will buy Lakeville-based MOM Brands for $1.15 billion, combining the nation’s third and fourth largest breakfast cereal makers. The deal, announced Monday morning, will give publicly traded Post a presence in the growing bagged cereal and hot cereal businesses, two of MOM Brands’ strongholds. Privately-owned MOM Brands, which has a big cereal plant in Northfield, is known for its Malt-O-Meal brand. The 95-year-old company has grown steadily over the past 15 years, particularly capturing share in the low-price or “value” segment of the cold cereal business.

A dispute over a cake in Colorado raises a new question about gay rights and religious freedom: If bakers can be fined for refusing to serve married gay couples, can they also be punished for declining to make a cake with anti-gay statements? A baker in suburban Denver who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding is fighting a legal order requiring him to serve gay couples even though he argued that would violate his religious beliefs. But now a separate case puts a twist in the debate over discrimination in public businesses, and it underscores the tensions...

Recycled whisky waste has £140m potential • The Scotch whisky industry could generate £140 million through recycling whisky wastes into fish feed for Scotland’s fish farming industry and help build a more circular economy. The possibility was highlighted in the Circular Economy Scotland report, which examines how the certain sectors such as oil and gas and the food industry can use their strengths to generate millions of pounds worth of value from materials used in these areas. It suggested the whisky industry could continue to capture heat and electricity from whisky wastes, but biorefining wastes could produce two more products...

Chicago tops the 2014 Bed Bug Cities List for the third year in a row. The list, released by pest control company Orkin, ranks the cities by the number of bed bug treatments Orkin performed from January to December 2014. Bed bugs were in the news throughout 2014 in the Windy City, with reports of the blood-sucking insects on public transit and inside several downtown office buildings, as well as in police headquarters, a fire station, school, library and movie theater. Seven cities made double-digit jumps on Orkin's Bed Bug Cities List compared to 2013, including Omaha, Neb. (+16), Lexington,...